Crazy Brave: A Memoir

You feel that this memoir was channeled through ancestors. What a hybrid of joy and sorrow, erudition and instinct. An added pleasure to hear it in the author’s own voice

Joy Harjo’s Crazy Brave, is a poignant and artistic memoir that provides readers with both lyrical and poetic lines and also recollections of historical substance. She combines beauty and truth in an elegant and effective way. Instead of dry, historical text, Harjo touches on difficult subjects such as Native American oppression, alcoholism, domestic abuse, and the feminist movement through her poetry and a first person account in a gentle tone, making these broad and daunting subjects pliable and relatable. She handles the idea of feminism and the oppression she faced as a Native female with particular grace. It is in her soft words that readers are led to the conclusion that Native American women were left behind in the feminist movement. Harjo depicts the trials of being both female and Native American and how the combination of the two was set aside and disregarded. Growing up with an Alcoholic father and step father, Harjo experienced alcoholism and domestic abuse at a young age. The two male figures in her young life would get drunk and abuse her mother, her and her siblings. Alcoholism, being prevalent in Native American communities, the living situation Harjo grew up in was more or less common and therefore, looked over. There was no help for women in these types of situations as Harjo explains, “There were no safe houses or domestic abuse shelters then, especially for native women. We weren’t supposed to be talking about personal difficulties when our peoples were laying down their lives for the cause” (158). The growing grimness of the lives of Native women was being looked over due to larger and “more important” social movements such as Native rights, Civil Rights, and (White) Women’s rights. She speaks of the issues of domestic violence due to alcohol throughout the book, as it follows her into her own relationships. It is not until a self-realization made through creative outlets that she triumphs over this issue on her own. Though Harjo solved her own personal problem, many Native women were left to face the battle of domestic violence without the help of an empowering movement that so many other minority groups had. Another issue specific to females that Harjo touches on is forced sterilization. She recounts,“During my last visit to the clinic at the Indian hospital I was given the option of being sterilized. It was explained to me that the moment of birth was the best time. I was handed the form but chose not to sign…Many Indian women who weren’t fluent in English signed, thinking it was a form giving consent for the doctor to deliver their baby. Others were sterilized without even the formality of signing” (Harjo 121).This was a widespread issue at the time and unfortunately, happening to many Native women that could not speak English. Forced sterilization took place in the 1970’s among other poor cultures as well, such as Puerto Ricans, Blacks, and Chicanos, but Native women were unique in their reliance on government aide explains Torpy, a writer for the American Indian Culture and Research Journal,“[Native] women were especially accessible victims due to several unique cultural and societal realities setting them apart from other minorities. Tribal dependence on the federal government through the Indian Health Service (IHS), the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) robbed them of their children and jeopardized their future as sovereign nations” (1).This huge and vile issue, like domestic violence, was overshadowed by larger movements at the time, even movements pertaining to Natives. Being both Native and a woman in the 1970’s was being at the utmost disadvantage. These women did not fit in with the women fighting for gender equality because they were Native American, not white. They did not fit in for the Native American’s fighting for rights because they were women, regarded as lesser. They were left behind in the two social movements that should have worked at empowering them, but instead, left them to fend for themselves. Surely not all Native American women at this time were able to gain strength and rebuild themselves as Harjo did. We are given an opportunity to read and see her creative talent. Her writing style is unique, dreamlike, and immensely expressive. Harjo used her artistic talents to make her own movement. It was through her poetry and art that she found her voice and was able to gain a self-assuredness that others were gaining through demonstrations and protest. Harjo’s memoir brings voice to those who were left behind. She brings awareness to the many social wrongs that these women faced and though her memoir recounts a past, the resurfacing of the hurt and injustices pays respect to the many women that went unspoken for.Works CitedHarjo, Joy. Crazy Brave: A Memoir. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. Print.Torpy, Sally J. "Native American Women And Coerced Sterilization: On The Trail Of Tears In The 1970S." American Indian Culture & Research Journal 24.2 (2000): 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

The first time I read it, I read it quickly (it's a short book) and most of the imagery, symbolism, deep discussion and inquiry flew over my head. I knew I missed the book in it's whole-so I read it again. The second time I read it, I read it slowly, took notes, made connections. What a masterpiece. What a brilliant woman and writer. She is an inspiration and inspired through the words and sequence of life on her book.

Exactly as described & wrapped well for shipping. Thank you

At first, the Memoir by Joy Harjo seems slow and too simple. Then, her life began to change. From that point on, I never put "Crazy Brave" down. She gives a clear painting of the hardships any Native American woman might face. As she faces them, she dreams about a creative transformation in her life. Along the way, there is the life of the whole Creek, Cherokee and Irish family. There are the children and the men in this woman's life. We see what it is like for all of them to live with and apart the White man who is definitely in the majority and is always a part of their world. Each step away from her beginning molds her in to a braver female.It is no shock when she almost loses her mind. Experiencing the abuses of an alcoholic, she finds herself trying to save a man who gets totally naked one night where he should not and one who climbs through a window to grab her in the dark. He has pulled down the electric wires to phone and lights. Again questions, should she keep trying to save him, rescuing him from his inner demons or is it time to save herself knowing he is a man and not a child.Basically, every day she faces staggering questions. None of which are easy when you have a son and daughter. Her trials are tremendous. Always running from real ghosts. To have become whom she is today is extraordinary. She never forgets her special identity. A Native American who must always do it a little bit harder whether she gains respect or not. She is an example to all of us.

This is such a good book I don't know where to begin. It makes me recall my own childhood and with the joy of a child I want to run up and share with someone my love of this book. I want to give a copy to my friends and read this again with my wife and read it to my daughter and have my son read it to me. I love her use of language and her life story is compelling, I have to read more from heranyone who can write like this it's a waste of my time not to be reading her."Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.Then we took it for granted. Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.Then Doubt pushed through witty with its spiked head.And once Doubt ruptured the web, all manner of demon thoughts jumped through.We destroyed the world we had been given for inspiration, for life. Each stone of jealousy,each stone of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.No one was without a stone in his or her hand.There we were, right back where we had started.We were bumping into each other in the dark.And now we had no place to live, since we didn't know how to live with each other.Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another and shared her blanket.A spark of kindness made a light. The light made an opening in the darkness.Everyone worked together to make a ladder.A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world. Now, follow them.Everyone is carrying a light that was given to be shared."(oooooooh! Drop the mike)

I loved this book. If you’re hesitating, don’t.

Good teading.

I learnt about the contemporary lives of native American women which was very interesting. I am Irish and the background sense of an ancient and enduring culture was what I was looking for, as this is what has always been missing for me in mainstream American culture, which comes across as shallow and colonial. The reverence for the landscape in the people who are the original nations is part of this story, and the sense of a resurgent nation and this inspiring woman needs to be widely read.

So happy with this beautiful book! Many Thanks.

Really gripping read by an extraordinary author- highly recommended.

I did like the honest tales of childhood and young adult life. Sometimes the mystical explanations were hard to follow, interspersed with everyday grit of the author's remarkable life. Now the US Poet Laurate, how will she grow and what will become of her voice within that yoke -- just asking. A more recent book's title is Conflict Resolution Among Holy Beings, or words to that effect, probably also essential to read.

Thank you for sharing … awesome lady … want to read everything you’ve written!! She speaks the truth …